1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to attachment devices and more particularly to attachment dies cooperable with pliers for attaching conventional snap fasteners to a fabric or a material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The demand for custom canvas, nylon and other fabric installations continues to increase as a result of greater leisure time now available to the consumer. These installations may include nylon, canvas or similar fabric material used for awnings, coverings or the like. In general, awnings for home, mobile home and camping trailers must be custom fitted to a particular application, size and desire of the owner. Coverings for boats, tents and the like must also be custom fitted for the particular use and desire of the owner. Another application for custom covers is for soft convertible tops for custom automobiles. The termination of factory production of convertible top automobiles has resulted in a boom to custom car builders of soft convertible automobiles requiring custom soft covers.
In general, the aforementioned covering material incorporates snap fastening devices for interlocking fabric sections, or for securing the fabric material to the house, boat or motor vehicle. The snap fastening devices generally comprise a male and a female snap fastener engagable with one another in a snap locking engagement. Each of the male and female snap fasteners comprise a first and a second snap fastener portion. The first and second snap fastener portions are secured to one another with the fabric material interposed therebetween thereby attaching either the male or the female snap fastener to the material. The first and second snap fastener portions are normally secured to one another by attachment dies connected to means for applying a substantial pressure for deforming at least one of the first and second snap fastener portions to secure the snap fastener to the material. In general, the die and the high pressure means were located in central installations requiring the custom cover or awning to be manufactured within an awning or canvas plant.
Unfortunately, the rising cost of labor, transportation and the like have made it economically unfeasible to produce custom installations for homes, boats, automobiles and the like at a central awning plant. Accordingly, some in the prior art have attempted to use portable snap fastening devices for use on the locations of the custom installation of the awning or covering. Some in the prior art have attempted to incorporate die attachments for plier devices for securing snap fasteners to a material. Unfortunately, none of the prior art devices have found widespread use since they were either overly complex and expensive or lacked the reliability required for professional custom installers of canvas material and the like. Accordingly, there is need in the prior art for a device for attaching snap fasteners to a material adapted for use with pliers which is inexpensive to produce while being reliable and capable of mounting to a large variety of prior devices.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the attachment art.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device for attaching snap fasteners to a material having a first and a second support unit capable of being mounted on a first and a second plier jaws with first and second thread fasteners for respectively securing the first and second support units to the first and second plier jaws.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device for attaching snap fasteners to a material comprising a first die insert including a projection for locating a first snap fastener portion relative to the first die insert and a second die insert including internal resilient means for locating a second snap fastener portion relative to the second die insert.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device for attaching a snap fastener to a material having a first and a second support unit including leg portions extending along opposed sides of the first and second plier jaws with threaded screw means extending through each of the leg portions to contact opposed sides of each of the first and second plier jaws.
Another object of this invention is to provide a device for attaching snap fasteners to a material wherein the first and second support units may be economically manufactured from a substantially cylindrical stock material by milling a slot therethrough forming plural legs for contacting opposed sides of the first and second plier jaws.
Other objects and a fuller understanding of this invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the description and the claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.